From a lev­i­tat­ing girl to a shad­owy spirit, these fa­mous and un­set­tling ghostly ap­pari­tions have all been cap­tured on cam­era

Look closely at the left of this hen party snap­shot, taken at Scot­land’s Loch Eck, and you’ll see the mys­te­ri­ous fig­ure of a small, dark-haired boy, peep­ing out from be­hind a log.

The area is be­lieved to be haunted by the ghost of a young boy, who drowned in the lake af­ter sleep­walk­ing.

ENFIELD POL­TER­GEIST

In 1977, a ter­ri­fy­ing pol­ter­geist wreaked havoc at a house in Enfield, north Lon­don, where Peggy Hodg­son lived with her four chil­dren. Over 2,000 para­nor­mal in­ci­dents were recorded, but the most chill­ing ev­i­dence was a pho­to­graph of 11-year-old Janet, seem­ingly lev­i­tat­ing across her bed­room – although some thought it was a hoax.

THE PALACE GHOST

In Oc­to­ber 2003, CCTV footage at Hamp­ton Court Palace re­vealed an eerie fig­ure, dressed in a long cloak. Warder James Fauks said the face “didn’t look hu­man”, and that the film showed the ap­pari­tion care­fully clos­ing a door. Was it a ghost?

THE PUB PHAN­TOM

It’s said to be one of Bri­tain’s most haunted pubs and, four years ago, the man­ager of Ye Olde Man and Scythe in Bolton saw on CCTV a shad­owy fig­ure lurk­ing at the bar. He watched the footage when he went down­stairs at 6am to in­ves­ti­gate the sound of smash­ing glass.

GHOST ON THE STAIRS

In 1936, a pho­tog­ra­pher was work­ing at Rayn­ham Hall in Nor­folk when his as­sis­tant spot­ted the shad­owy fig­ure of a woman drift­ing down the grand stair­case. The ap­pari­tion is be­lieved to be the spirit of Dorothy Walpole, who died from small­pox in 1726.